Upcoming Patch 2.4 Changes of Interest

NOTE: None of the links and tooltips will work right now, but hopefully as the database sites get this info integrated, we’ll be able to provide direct links. For now, http://www.mmo-champion.com/ has stats for all these items posted in screenshots!

Patch 2.4 brings new content in Sunwell Plateau, as well as a plethora of new items and gear. There are also a few warrior specific changes, but nothing that really impacts tanking.

Shattered Sun Offensive Reputation Rewards

There are several reputation reward items for the Sunwell plateau that may well provide upgrades if you have not been raiding much, or are an up and coming level 70. There is a shield, [item]Dawnforged Defender[/item], and a tanking sword, [item]Inuuro’s Blade[/item] on par with Grom’tor’s charge. These will only cost you a few gold once you have the required reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive reputation.

New Defensive Metagem – [item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]

There is a new metagem as well. [item]Eternal Earthstorm Diamond[/item]. It will grant +12 Defense and +10% Shield Block VALUE. I’m not so sure this will outweigh the [item]Powerful Earthstorm Diamond[/item] unless you are going for a passive crush immunity set.

New Enchant – Enchant Chest – Defense

This new enchant will grant 15 defense rating to your chest. Now this one I see as a possibility depending on your gear and gem selections. Typically tanks would go for Major Health, which is +150 health. But if going with +15 Defense would allow you to socket more [item]Solid Star of Elune[/item], then going with Defense will be the better option. Add in the Vitality talent bonus for Stamina and you would definitely lean more towards gemming Solid Stars and enchanting +15 Defense.

New Head Glyph – [item]Glyph of the Gladiator[/item]

At first glance, this is a PVP glyph. But let’s look a little closer. This glyph gives 18 stamina and 20 resilience. This might be a good choice if you are going for more health and less avoidance of the [item]Glyph of the Defender[/item]. Again, this one will come down to personal preference, raid encounter, and current gear setup.

New Gear

There are various new items as well that will cost tokens or badges of some sort. I am hoping to get on test realm soon to find out exactly what it will take but for now here is a list of some items:

New Tier 6 added items

No More Attunement for Black Temple and Mount Hyjal

And of course, last but not least, all attunement requirements for Black Temple and Mount Hyjal are being dropped. So Rochelle, looks like you should start covering some of the early fights in BT and MH for us as we may be venturing in there sooner than expected!

Comments

I’m sure you must of misread but Eternal Earthstorm Diamond effects Block Value not Block Rating. That is a huge upgrade imo. Not only are you increasing your threat gen but you are increasing your effective block value on your shield. Then again you could have been talking about the +12 def but I think it would be easy to trade 207hp for around 50 shield dmg reduction and around a 2% threat increase depending on your gear setup of course(not to mention 12def). But Tier 5 with that diamond would be my heroic gear of choice. On that note there is rumored to be a 1.4 speed tanking weapon which is super hott! If you throw a +7 dmg enchant on that its a 5dps WHITE damage increase which would go great with any threat set.

The 1.5 second GCD change on Bear Mangle is likely to significantly gimp Bear Druids’ TPS – possibly even putting Bears below a well-played and well-geared Paladin on single target TPS. Will need to *actually* see evidence of this before saying for certain, but all indications are that Druid Tanks are really feeling the burn on this one.